Sanofi drug Multaq keeps patients out of hospital

LONDON, May 15 (Reuters) - Patients with a common heart arrhythmia are less likely to end up in hospital if given Sanofi-Aventis's (SASY.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) experimental drug Multaq, scientists said on Wednesday.

The news boosts the chances of success for the product, which the French drugmaker plans to submit for marketing approval in the third quarter of 2008 and sees as a potential blockbuster.

Multaq reduced hospitalisations in people with atrial fibrillation by 25 percent, although it did not result in a statistically significant fall in total mortality, according to results of a 4,628-patient clinical study presented at the American Heart Rhythm Society meeting in San Francisco.

The primary endpoint of the study was cardiovascular hospitalisation or death from any cause.

Dr. Stuart Connolly, director of cardiology at Canada's McMaster University and one of the trial investigators, told Reuters the findings showed Multaq was a promising new drug.

"Although it hasn't shown a reduction in mortality ... keeping people out of hospital is a very important outcome," he said in a telephone interview. (Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Quentin Bryar)